Niloofar Hamedi’s lawyers, Partow Borhanpour and Hojjat Kermani, have announced that the journalist has been summoned to serve her five-year prison sentence.
According to Kolbarnews, the lawyers stated that despite the fact that Hamedi should have been pardoned under the 2022 Amnesty Directive and her case closed, an execution order was issued on October 19, 2024. She is now required to report to Evin Prison within five days to begin serving her five-year sentence. The defense team objected to the proceedings and emphasized that the only remaining charges against Hamedi are “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security” and “propaganda against the regime.” Regardless of these charges, based on their review of the case and statements by the Judiciary’s spokesperson, the 2022 amnesty should apply, and they are unclear why it has not been granted.
On October 13, 2024, the Judiciary’s spokesperson announced that the cases of Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi had been sent to the execution branch. Hamedi, a journalist with the Shargh newspaper, was the first to publish a photo of Jina (Mahsa) Amini in a coma. Mohammadi, a journalist with Ham-Mihan, traveled to Saqqez to report on Amini’s death. Both journalists were arrested in the early days of the 2022 nationwide protests. They were later transferred from Qarchak Prison in Varamin to Evin Prison.
In late October 2023, Judge Salavati of Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court sentenced Hamedi to seven years in prison for “collaboration with the hostile government of the United States,” five years for “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security,” and one year for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic.” Similarly, Mohammadi was sentenced to six years for “collaboration with the hostile government of the United States,” five years for “gathering and colluding against national security,” and one year for “propaganda against the regime.”
In late August 2024, the Tehran Court of Appeals acquitted both journalists of the “collaboration with the hostile government of the United States” charge, but upheld the five-year prison sentence for “gathering and colluding against national security” and one year for “propaganda against the regime” for each of them.
Under Article 134 of the Islamic Penal Code, the maximum sentence, five years, will be enforced for each journalist.
Hamedi and Mohammadi were released on bail from Evin Prison on January 14, 2024. Shortly after their release, the Judiciary’s media center announced that a new legal case had been opened against them for “removing their hijabs.”
